"Does anyone one else think the damage estimates are absurd?"
If any of you know anybody in the path of previous hurricanes you know the stories of people getting FEMA to write checks for things that needed repairing BEFORE the storms (e.g. new windows, new roofs) and no damage during the declared disaster. I know of a couple instances in both Charlie and Ivan...and without a doubt Andrew was abuse central.
Absolutely not!! You're talking about the complete infrastructure of a large and critical seaport city and source of oil -- waterways, utilities, bridges, contaminated ground, mold crawling up the walls of thousands and thousands of decimated structures, (schools, churches, office buildings, homes).. and we're not even talking about the God-blessed levee system that surrounds this island of a city sitting in a most vulnerable geographical spot.
I do believe this is the most all-encompassing devastation that any large American city has ever seen.